Logo for TEAMS-MSS

Pages for the Teacher:

Index

 Return to the MSS index page.

 

OTHER META-SITES 

Return to index for this page. 

 

READING LISTS 

  • A bibliography, mostly for middle schools, based on one compiled by George Roller for Library and Media Network Communications 
  • Cookbooks, with other aids for planning a medieval banquet 
 

Return to index for this page. 

 

SYLLABI, LESSON PLANS, & RESOURCES

Elementary

  • Medieval Times at Olson Park School, Machesney Park, Illinois. Cooperative program for grades 4 and 6; site consists mostly of pictures for benefit of school patrons.
  • For fourth grade, from the Core Knowledge Foundation (these are generally very detailed lesson plans):
  • Europe in the Middle Ages -- "Grade Level: This unit is written for a four/five multi-age classroom. The activities included can be used to meet the needs of all. Presented by: Kay Branch, Faye Boyd, Wanda Buice, Dianne Meyer, Frances Mosher, Carla Sisk, and Carol Trusty of Midway Elementary School, Forsyth County School District, Alpharetta, Georgia; Length of Unit: the unit is composed of eight lessons, some of which are designed to take more than one day."
  • KNIGHT LIFE (a .pdf file) "Presented by: Madilyn Layman, Marked Tree Elementary, Marked Tree, AR; Kendal Montgomery, WJ Clinton Primary, Hope, AR; Robin Townsend, WJ Clinton Primary, Hope, AR; Length of Unit: 5 Lessons. ABSTRACT Medium aevum- Medieval or The Middle Ages is often thought of as a time of knights in shining armor, lavish feasts, kings, queens, and glorious pageantry.In film and literature, medieval life seems heroic, entertaining, and romantic.In reality, life in the Middle Ages was also harsh, uncertain, and often extremely dangerous. This unit will focus specifically on knighthood and the contributions that knights made to this culturally rich and dangerous time era. The unit emphasizes the duties, obligations, and characteristics of these chosen few. Students will explore the concepts of knighthood through a variety of activities including participation in a mental mock jousting tournament."
  • OF MONKS AND MINSTRELS:  MUSIC OF THE MEDIEVAL AGE --"Presented by: Pamela Griffith, Serna Elementary School, San Antonio, Texas (NorthEast Independent School District, SingPSG@gateway.net); Length of Unit:Six lessons"
  • ROSE WINDOWS AND TROUBADOURS: ART AND MUSIC FROM THE MIDDLE AGES(.pdf file) "Presented by: Holly Jo Camp and Amy Wood, Roscoe Wilson Elementary Magnet School Lubbock, TX; Length of Unit: 5 Music Lessons, 2 Art Lessons.  ABSTRACT Art and music projects are presented to fourth graders during their study of the Middle Ages. Rose windows and illuminated manuscripts are included in the art projects. The art unit focuses on the architecture, cathedral windows, and illuminated manuscripts produced in the Middle Ages. In music, projects will include troubadour songs and dance, medieval recorder pieces and Gregorian chants. In the music unit, both secular and sacred music is covered featuring chants, songs, instrumental pieces, and dance."     
  • Kids For Broadway, a commercial site, offers plays for performance by students aged 7-14, including two on medieval themes, MERLIN AND THE MAGIC SWORD (" Three girl scouts are on a field trip in England and go exploring in a forest knoll near Dover Beach...") and SIR GAWAIN AND THE LOATHLY LADY (" King Arthur has met up with a strange Knight in the forest who has challenged the King to answer a question correctly or he will lose his Kingdom...").
  • Stained glass in the schools curriculum.
    A TEAMS session presentation from the 2001 International Congress on Medieval Studies, now available in Adobe Acrobat format. Focuses on elementary school and middle school learners.[Download Acrobat reader]
  • Middle School

  • The Sixth Grade Renaissance Faire at Wetzel Road Elementary in Liverpool, New York (part of a medieval unit, despite the name); includes the students' first-person sketches of medieval characters.
  • Medieval Madness, a sixth-grade project at Palos South Middle School, Palos Park, Illinois.
  • The Seventh Grade Medieval Festival at Le Grand Elementary School in Le Grand, California
  • The Black Plague --The designer, Cory M. Wisnia (cwisnia@mcn.org) writes: "This is a lesson/simulation which has been presented at several science conferences. I am putting it on-line so that more educators may be able to access and use it. It is appropriate for those studying the Middle Ages as well as those studying epidemics. Although it is a single lesson simulation, it can bepart of a larger cross-curricular miniunit."
  • Eighth Grade Medieval Social Studies Class-- Home page for a course taught by Art Titzel (art_titzel@acsd.k12.pa.us), Annville-Cleona Middle School, Annville, Pennsylvania
  •  Light Motif: Life in a Medieval Castle --Five Art Activities for an Intergrated Medieval Unit, by David Meyler, part of  The Baxter Group's network,  Edunet . Note that the activity on heraldry misleadingly suggests that coats-of-arms tell a family history in images; coats-of-arms can reflect some honors, marriages, and birth-order, but the basic design of a shield by and large indicates that an ancestor thought a blue lion (or whatever) looked neat.
  • Medieval Times Unit --One of several sets of sample lesson plans from Lake Gibson Middle School, Lakeland, Florida, which uses integrated thematic instruction rather than a departmentalized curriculum.
  • Sworn to Serve--A lesson plan for a two-week group project, aimed at 7th graders. Written by Colin Kenney  (colin_kenney@eee.org), Grace Yokley School, Mountain View School District, edited by Noelle Kreider (Noelle_Kreider@eee.org), ITDC Teacher on Assignment, Rialto Unified School District.
  • High School

    • Arthurian Legends : A Web-based Interdisciplinary Approach for Educators, maintained by  Katherine Eisenhower   (keisenho@pen.k12.va.us).
    • A guide to the medieval village of Wharram Percy.
    • The Middle Ages--Not, in fact, a lesson plan, but an extensive student project put together by Aaron Rice , (ricej@ed.byu.edu) '95, while a student at Timpview High School, Provo, Utah. Unreliable as a research tool, but a great demonstration of what students can do on the Web.
    • The Richard III Society--Learning Resources  --A remarkably thorough site on the career of this (perhaps?) maligned king, including resources for teachers at this URL and for students at the Quick Start page.
    • Medieval Website Workbook--by Kevin Ruth , of the Tower Hill School, Wilmington DE (kruth@towerhill.org), another TEAMS board member. Exercises in German and French, with more to come.
    • Tutorial--Virtual Excavation--Medieval Archaeology--Guides students through the excavation of a medieval monastery; includes interactive quizzes.
    • Twice-Told Tales: Medieval Stories in the Modern World --Syllabus and other materials for the senior English elective I formerly taught at Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School, Ladue, Missouri.
    • The End of Europe's Middle Ages From the University of Calgary, and aimed at college students: "The End of Europe's Middle Ages is designed to assist those students engaged in Renaissance, Reformation and Early Modern studies who lack a background in medieval European history. Intended to provide a brief overview of the conditions at the end of Europe's Middle Ages, the tutorial is presented in a series of chapters that summarize the economic, political, religious and intellectual environment of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The main objective of the tutorial is to furnish a baseline against which the vast changes of the following centuries may be measured."

    Return to index forthis page. 

     

    This page last revised on January 24, 2007.
    The decorative motifs are from Eva Wilson,
    Early Medieval Designs from Britain forArtists and Craftspeople, Dover Books, 1983. The Up Arrow is a heraldic pheon, from the program Blazon, available through: The British Heraldic Archive

    About TEAMS | Publications| Online Texts | Teaching Resources | News/Events| Contact
    All materials on this site are copyright 2000-2001, The Consortium forthe Teaching of the Middle Ages, except as indicated herein. Allrights reserved.